Ciraolo gives firsthand account of COVID-19 experience

Rubén Darío Ciraolo, a former Valencia CF player during the late 1980s, is one of the thousands of people in Spain who have suffered from the COVID-19 virus. Now recovering after several weeks in hospital, he spoke to VCF Media about his condition and the effects of the coronavirus.

"We have to fight and we have to take life differently. I spent 19 days in the hospital. The most important thing are your amily, your friends and relaxing so that you can enjoy life," was his testimony on Friday.

"My immune system kicked in and -maybe because I used to be an athlete- it managed to stop the influx of liquid into my lungs. After the storm, comes the calm."

"I contracted it on February 27th, was ok for a week, albeit with a fever, then the fever went up. On March 7th I was admitted to hospital, and I wasn't discharged until the 25th. I was the second person to go into the facility with coronavirus."

Ciraolo warned that it is important to take the utmost precaution with the virus, saying that "Yo don't realise how easy it is to catch it. I caught it from a kiss and a handshake. The you touch some headphones and that's it."

"I still keep taking my temperature and I still have pneumonia, because that doesn't get cured overnight. I'm still scared, despite there being people who say that I am immune now."

The illness also came with extreme weight loss for the former player, who comments that "I say I lost 10 kilos, so that people don't worry, but I think that it was closer to 14.5. My body has changed over these past two months; my legs have become very thin. I have to stop, I get dizzy and I have to go back to bed again. I still have another week of isolation to go."

Ciraolo received messages from former teammates Ricardo Arias and Miguel Angel Bossio during his interview on VCF Media Radio, and hopes to meet up with the pair soon when he is back to full health.